I had my install today. It took a couple of hours. Mediacom wasn't familiar with 2 cable cards, but they took the time to figure it out and got everything working.

All said I'm very happy with Mediacom. I ordered 2 cards a week ago and they promised them in 6-8 weeks. A few days later they scheduled for today. They had both cards today. The installer stayed to make sure 100% of the channels worked on both cards.

I'm in Missouri and called Mediacom and asked for the availability of CCs, and the first lady I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about. She transferred me to technical support and they said they didn't support the use of CCs in my area :-( This bums me out big time as I have a new TV in route that could use two CCs in addition to the TiVo S3!!

I'm in Missouri and called Mediacom and asked for the availability of CCs, and the first lady I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about. She transferred me to technical support and they said they didn't support the use of CCs in my area :-( This bums me out big time as I have a new TV in route that could use two CCs in addition to the TiVo S3!!

He's in Ames, Iowa (north of Des Moines). We have Mediacom here in my area, too, but I haven't checked to see if they know anything about cablecards. From what I've seen in some postings, there will be a few small cable cos that aren't required to use cablecards.

__________________"Wonderful things can happen when you sow seeds of mistrust in a garden of a**holes," -- Philosopher Raylan Givens

He's in Ames, Iowa (north of Des Moines). We have Mediacom here in my area, too, but I haven't checked to see if they know anything about cablecards. From what I've seen in some postings, there will be a few small cable cos that aren't required to use cablecards.

Thanks. I decided to call the local number on my statement...they are more than happy to provide you with them...for $2.95 each per month...with the TV, and TiVo S3, I'd need 4 of them...I didn't realize that the charge for the cards were recurring.

He did offer that if I came in to the local office, they could refer me to the brand/specs of CCs that would work on our systems here and that I could buy them outright. Have you or do you know of anyone that has done this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bierboy

I have the S3 and Mediacom, but don't plan on getting CCs....PM me if you'd like more info on why...

Is this offer still good? I am curious as to why and appreciate any feedback or concerns.

That's right I'm in Ames, Iowa. I think Mediacom is big enough to be required to support the cards. I also think they are more than willing to support the cards they just don't have a staff thats well informed on them. I'd either keep calling back or have them ask around for someone who knows.

When I called I got someone who was in training, it turned out well. They said they didn't know about the cards. Then someone got on the phone and said they were the training supervisor and I could order cards. She wanted to know about the device they were going in and she said she wasn't sure about 2 in one device. I told her it was a new system and she probably wouldn't have seen one yet. She was fine with that and put the order through. She said 6-8 weeks. A few days later they said the cards were in and we scheduled an installer to come out.

I'd get the installer to come out. It's easy to put the cards in and go to the right screens for the info, but the tech I had knew when he called in who to talk to. He kept saying can you put so and so on; they were busy or gone so he kept asking for people until he got the right person. They have to give them the card id and 2 id's from the Tivo. All numbers are unique to each slot. Once all that was setup and the cards were hit we found the premium tier wasn't on so he called someone else about that. The installer said something about the cards needing to be listed first in the account or they don't always work right.

I went around and around with Mediacom support in Springfield, MO yesterday, and finally I got a supervisor on the phone that knew about the cablecards, and all is working now.

The key is definitely that the cablecards are listed first on the account you are calling in about, and that the person with the correct authorization level is able to send the hit to the cable cards.

The issue with my install (cards installed at noon, not working properly until 6pm) was the the tech told me it would take 2-3 hours for the channels on the digital and HD tiers to be available, so he left. The truth was that once the supervisor cleared up the administrative issues with my account (they had me still having a DVR from them, which the tech took with him when he left, and no cable cards listed....) the channels were accessible within 2 minutes of the hit sent to them by the supervisor.

The key---hang in there and don't take no for an answer....the cards from Mediacom definitely work with TIVO series 3.

I live in the Des Moines, IA area. I called to order by cable cards, but the sales lady was adamant about not supporting anything other than TV's. She wouldn't order my cards until I told her the model number of my TV. I finally told her it was for 2 Mitsubishi WD-62525 TV's. The order is in. I will post back when they are in...

Mediacom said it would take 6-8 weeks, I Ordered it on Friday and got a letter on Tuesday saying it was available and i had to call to schedule the install. Kinda annoying that it couldn't get scheduled the first time since they obviously had them.

Also, The person i got when i called to have it installed seemed to have no problem with the fact they were going into a TiVo, he even made it a point of making sure I had two cards for the thing (since i only ordered 1). It was nice to get someone who understood the situation.

If you ever used the Motorola DCT-6412 Mediacom rents, you'd be glad for the TiVo. Maybe when I can get more than 5 HD channels in small-town Iowa, I'll find the funds for the S3. Until then, the SD TiVos I have will suffice.

Glad to hear Mediacom can handle the CC's. I asked them a few weeks ago before the S3 came out, and the guy I spoke with wasn't sure about CC compatibility. At least he was aware of the S3 coming out.

Hmm, I'm on a waiting list in eastern Iowa, supposedly in November they are going to get CableCARDs. I forgot to mention I needed two of them, though. $6 a month for two, huh? I forget how much the Moto rental costs per month, is it $7.50 (too lazy to go find the bill right now)

And, yeah, the Moto 6412iii is a piece of junk. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to do OnDemand and/or PPV, the S3 can't do that even with a CableCARD, but most people are willing to give that up to use a S3 over the cable company's STB/DVR.

Hmm, I'm on a waiting list in eastern Iowa, supposedly in November they are going to get CableCARDs. I forgot to mention I needed two of them, though. $6 a month for two, huh? I forget how much the Moto rental costs per month, is it $7.50 (too lazy to go find the bill right now)

And, yeah, the Moto 6412iii is a piece of junk. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to do OnDemand and/or PPV, the S3 can't do that even with a CableCARD, but most people are willing to give that up to use a S3 over the cable company's STB/DVR.

Ivory, where in eastern Iowa are you? If it's the QC area, I'd be very interested in how it goes (though I doubt I'll ever increase my package to expanded basic, then digital, plus HD - WAY too much $$). Thanks.

__________________"Wonderful things can happen when you sow seeds of mistrust in a garden of a**holes," -- Philosopher Raylan Givens

Ivory, where in eastern Iowa are you? If it's the QC area, I'd be very interested in how it goes (though I doubt I'll ever increase my package to expanded basic, then digital, plus HD - WAY too much $$). Thanks.

I'm in the Waterloo. I'm now thinking about just getting rid of digital cable outright. I get the four local network HD channels OTA perfectly with a cheap powered indoor RCA antenna, which was the main reason I got digital cable in the first place, to be able to record 24, Lost, and the like in HD. With the S3 I can do that now without paying for digitcal cable and the moto 6412 rental fees.

Mediacom came today to install, but they only brough one card. doh! The installer had never done a Tivo, but didn't mind. It took quite a while for the card to be initialized by the cable company. The status screen didn't seem to update with anything. After about 20-30 min of switching between the status and channel screen, the channels finally came up. Everything worked, but I need to set up another time for the additional card...

Just received the S3 today and hadn't seen this board as of then. I called the Mediacom 800 number and they assured me the cards DO NOT work with TIVO.

I then went to the local office, lied through my teeth and told them i was sure it would work just to get them out here to try it. The techs standing in the office told me that getting rid of my box and switching to the cards would assure me only 1 way communication instead of the 2 way communication which means i will lose pay-per-view, the channel guide, and most of the channel information. They said when the channel is displayed I will only have the channel number and maybe the name of the channel; NO OTHER INFORMATION. Not sure about this but i was wondering if those of you with experience know anything about this.
ALSO... any tips on making the setup easier when they come on this Friday P.M.?

I don't have actual experience, but that's a load of BULL. The only part that is accurate AFAIK is that you will lose pay-per-view (through the box; you can still do it over the phone). The TiVo provides all your guide information, and much better than Mediacrap. The guide will provide all the information any TiVo does. Can't help you with tips, but others who frequent this thread and have actual Mediacrap experience should be able to help. Perhaps you could PM them. I know someone from Missouri has experience with these jokers.

__________________"Wonderful things can happen when you sow seeds of mistrust in a garden of a**holes," -- Philosopher Raylan Givens

Just received the S3 today and hadn't seen this board as of then. I called the Mediacom 800 number and they assured me the cards DO NOT work with TIVO.

I then went to the local office, lied through my teeth and told them i was sure it would work just to get them out here to try it. The techs standing in the office told me that getting rid of my box and switching to the cards would assure me only 1 way communication instead of the 2 way communication which means i will lose pay-per-view, the channel guide, and most of the channel information. They said when the channel is displayed I will only have the channel number and maybe the name of the channel; NO OTHER INFORMATION. Not sure about this but i was wondering if those of you with experience know anything about this.
ALSO... any tips on making the setup easier when they come on this Friday P.M.?

You lose pay per view, but that's it. The guide still works. Channels have names. You still see whats on the channel. The S3 works 100%. It's a million times better than Mediacom's box.

The main recommendation is follow the Tivo one sheet guide to installing the cards. Also the cards are supposed to be at the top of the order in Mediacom's system; I don't know what it means but whoever the tech calls should.

I have Mediacom in Santa Rosa County, Florida. I posted a lengthy diatribe elsewhere on these forums about the initial disaster that was the CC install. As of now, I've had CC's for about 5 weeks. CC1 works like a charm. I get every channel and the HD recordings are magnificent. Now the bad news. CC2 still doesn't work. Fortunately, a very agreeable tech named Bill continues to work with me to try and solve the mystery. He's even called to say he was continuing to research the problem. They've been very nice so I'm trying to be patient. They even deleted the install charge since the original two installers that showed up had the wrong equipment and were, frankly, clueless. Eventually I went to the local office, picked up the cards and did the install myself. As noted, #1 went just as described in the instructions. The first #2 was a bad card(the Tivo would never read any of the numbers). Now, the new #2 reads the numbers it just won't authorize. Waiting to hear back from Bill.

I have to admit, I've dealt with various cable companies over the years and Mediacom is much better than most. I'm convinced this problem is something simple we just haven't figured out yet.

Mediacom sent nice but inexperienced tech out to install cable cards. He had never seen a Tivo and I don't think he knows much about cable cards in general. He had directions with him and refused to look at directions from Tivo. Tried first card and got a 161-4 error. Resent a hit but still same error. Tried another cable card with same results. Tried card in slot 2 with same results. Now they are telling me they don't support tivo. Called Tivo support while tech here and she researched error and said that any 161 error meant cable card was faulty and multiple cards might be need to be tried because cable card technology not very good. She said if same error comes up, I need to return Tivo 3! Cable guy put card in my tv and it seemed to work fine (didn't go through whole channel setup) so he says problem is with Tivo....not cable card. Now I'm caught in the middle and I was so excited about my new tivo.

Researched 161-4 error online after tech gone and now find out Tivo says to ignore error. I hope that I can get Mediacom to come again with a more experienced tech and more than 2 cable cards to try again but I'm afraid they will say "we don't support tivos". Irony is that I've been a loyal mediacom customer since 1992 and if cable cards will work in tivo 3 I will be tied to mediacom for years because the box doesn't work with satellite.

I'd definitely ask them to come again. Tell them Tivo included very easy instructions but your tech refused to look at them. Tell them you've been reading up on the internet and have seen lots of people who say they got it to work just fine.

I had a little trouble at first, but if you are polite and persistent you should get them to give it another try.

As a last resort, tell them if you need to return the Tivo without them even trying again, then you might as well go with DirectTV TiVo's...